Spending on early childhood education, such as day care centers and preschools, are among the deductions allowed in the Income Tax.
You can enter expenses for your own education, such as college, technical or graduate education, and for your dependents or children, such as elementary, middle, high school, or higher education.
However, not all education expenses can be used to deduct the tax, which causes many taxpayers to make mistakes in filling out the return.
See below what can and cannot be declared as an education expense and the amounts allowed per person. The rules apply both to expenses in Brazil and to education abroad.
What can be deducted from the IR
Enrollment and tuition fees for daycare, school or college can be deducted, whether in Brazil or abroad. The limit is BRL 3,561.50 per year per person (taxpayer, dependent or feeding).
In this way, if you take a postgraduate course and your child is already of school age, you can deduct the expenses of both with education in the declaration, that is, up to R$ 7,123. The excess amount must be entered in the “non-deductible installment” field.
Among the accepted educational institutions are those of early childhood education (nursery and preschool), elementary, secondary or higher education (undergraduate, master’s, doctoral and specialization) and also technical or vocational schools.
English school, dance school, cram school and gym are not valid
Expenses with tuition fees for foreign language schools, dance courses, music, gyms or pre-university courses are not accepted for income tax deduction.
School supplies and uniforms don’t count either.
It is not allowed to charge expenses with textbooks, handouts or other types of school material to the Income Tax.
Transportation, housing and uniform expenses, even if they are related to school or college, are also not deductible.
In the case of spending on education outside the country, the rules are the same. That is, it is not worth discounting expenses with travel, food or housing.
Expenditure on food depends on court decision
In the case of separated parents, the person responsible for paying the child support may also deduct the expenses with the children’s studies, provided that such expense is provided for in the court decision that determined the payment of child support.
When filling out the declaration, inform that the expenditure on education refers to food.
See where to report education expenses on the statement
Education expenses must be reported in the “Payments made” form.
Locate the form in the menu on the left side of the IR 2022 filling program screen. Click on “New”.
Select the code “01 – Expenses with Instruction in Brazil” or the code “02 – Expenses with Instruction abroad”. Then, inform if the expense is yours (Owner), the dependent or the person being fed.
If you have more than one dependent or feeding, select whose expense it is. Then inform the CNPJ and the name of the school.
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In the “description” field, repeat the name of the school, inform the course, year or grade, and who is attending (you, dependent or feeding).
Finally, inform the total amount spent on the school in 2021, even if the amount is greater than the education expense limit of R$ 3,561.50. The program will only consider the limit for the tax deduction.
If you have received any type of reimbursement for education expenses, please inform in the “non-deductible installment/reimbursed amount” field.
Click “OK” to complete filling the form.
Repeat this process for each person (owner, dependent, supporting) that you intend to report on education expenses.
